Michael Moore lauds rogue page

Quietly hoisting a ‘Stop Harper’ sign in the midst of the Throne Speech may have cost Brigette DePape her job, but the protest has gained her some fans in the U.S., including rabble-rousing filmmaker Michael Moore.

Mr. Moore has spent the weekend gushing over the 21-year-old rogue page. On Sunday, he posted a big photo of Ms. DePape carrying out her act of civil disobedience on his website above a bold red headline: “Canada Gets Warmer.”

“For a young person to do that and to do it peacefully, and quietly and with grace, I thought it was a very powerful moment,” Mr. Moore said in a statement on his website. “Every now and then there is an iconic moment where an individual takes action, and it inspires others … I think that Canada and Canadians probably need to put aside the full respect thing and get to work on preventing their government from turning into a version of ours.”

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The filmmaker, author and liberal political commentator, best known for films Bowling for Columbine and Fahrenheit 9/11, has spoken out against Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s Conservatives and often urges Canadians to vote for another party.

Ms. DePape, who was about two months away from completing her year-long gig as a parliamentary page, issued a statement shortly after her ouster from the House, explaining her actions.

“Harper’s agenda is disastrous for this country and for my generation. This country needs a Canadian version of an Arab spring, a flowering of popular movements that demonstrate that real power to change things lies not with Harper but in the hands of the people, when we act together in our streets, neighbourhoods and workplaces.”

Along with that statement, she stressed that three out of four voters did not throw their support behind the Harper Conservatives in the May 2 election, despite the party securing a sound majority.

She has issued no apology and has said in numerous interviews since the carefully orchestrated event that she has no regrets about sacrificing her job as a page and the potential career fall-out in Ottawa that could follow.

In a brief interview with the National Postafter her release Friday, she said “I think that youth need to engage in creative acts of civil disobedience,” and added that she objected to the Conservative government’s policies.

A raft of Facebook groups have launched in support of Ms. DePape, calling her a “True Canadian Patriot” and saying “Brigette DePape 4 Prime Minister (though a few deriding her act of protest have also cropped up). A Stop Harper rally event is scheduled to take place in Ottawa on June 10.

Though many applauded Ms. DePape’s protest, parliamentarians denounced it as disrespectful.

Green Party Leader and MP for Saanich-Gulf Islands Elizabeth May said the protest was “inappropriate” because it was carried out during the Throne Speech, which is essentially a moment for Her Majesty the Queen and the Sovereign, not Mr. Harper. That said, Ms. May admired the peaceful and quiet way in which the act of civil disobedience was carried out.

“While understanding her reasons and feeling that that was a brave act, it was the wrong place,” Ms. May said.

The Liberal party’s interim leader Bob Rae said the young page will have to live with the consequences of taking advantage of her page position to stage a protest.

“There is a right to freedom of expression in the country,” he said. “I don’t think that a ceremony like this should be disrupted.”

The Conservative Party’s former campaign chair Guy Giorno called for more security measures in the House.

“Speech incident raises real security questions. Parl employees and bags not screened. This time just cardboard but could have been anything,” he wrote on Twitter Friday.

Late Friday, the Speaker of the Senate, Noel Kinsella, issued a statement saying he “deplores a page, which constituted a contempt of Parliament, during the Opening of Parliament in the Senate Chamber today. All employees of the Senate are expected to serve the institution in a non-partisan manner, with competence, excellence, efficiency and objectivity.”

He said her job was terminated immediately and that security concerns in the Senate are now under investigation.